She Says… I Have Boogers

The ironic thing about this post is that, aside from the neverending run-of-the-mill daycare boogers, Owen really doesn’t have any extra boogers to speak of right now. Yet still, I hear this sentence at least 50 times a day.

I’m not sure what the obsession is, really. Most kids HATE having their nose wiped. In fact, Owen still resists it a little bit, even after proclaiming “I have boogers” and asking me to wipe them. Sigh.

I think it started a week or two ago, when he really DID have an excess of boogers, and I would say things like, “You will feel better if you just let me wipe your boogers” or “Let me just get two good wipes, then we can read a book”.

He has started spitting my own words back at me in the funniest ways. Case in point: last week he pooped while we were out at the dog park and I didn’t have a diaper with me. I told him we would head home in a few minutes and I would change him. He said, “But Mommy. I might getta rash if da poop is on my butt too long.” Umm, guess where he heard that one?! Now he’s all, “I have boogers. Need you to wipe me to feel better.” Touche, kid.

Last week when his cousin was here, both kids had noses running like faucets, so there was a lot of nose wiping going on. I actually think Owen’s frequent nose wiping requests are more related to the attention of having an adult stop what they are going, go get a tissue, come back and wipe you, ask you if it’s better, let you throw away the tissue, etc. It’s a predictable routine that all comes from that one little sentence, “I have boogers.”. Kids dig that sort of thing.

Then yesterday on the drive home from school, Owen said, “You don’t have to wipe my nose anymore. I can do it on myself. You don’t have to help.”. Aha! His teachers had figured out how to curb the nose wiping requests! They taught him to do it ALL himself. Duh. Why didn’t I think of that?

So last night I put the box of tissues on his little table and chairs, at his height. Whenever he asked for a nose wipe, I reminded him that he could get it himself, wipe his own nose, then throw it away in the trash. Yes, we’re wasting tissues like crazy (I’m trying to teach him to use them multiple times, since there are almost no boogers on them at all. Benjamin even showed him how to stuff the tissue in his pocket last night so he could keep using the same one), but I think it’s just a fad.

Oh “Mommy I have boogies!” is a common occurrence in our house too. Lately it’s actually been because his nose has been a faucet, but there was a few days where it was entirely in jest because I made wiping his nose too fun apparently lol It was definitely a fad and only lasted a day or two!